360 The Trouts of America 



than the length of the rod, slide the net under 

 him at the first sign of exhaustion. Above all 

 things keep cool, and play the fish without flurry. 

 Our old master of the craft, Izaak Walton, nearly 

 four hundred years ago, said to Venator on the 

 stream : 



" Why, now, let me tell you, you lost that fish 

 by your own fault, and through your own eager- 

 ness and haste." 



Bait fishing and fly fishing, as I have written, 

 are alike legitimate and sportsmanlike. The ad- 

 vocates and followers of the first method are fully 

 equal in number to those of the latter, and when 

 we hear the remark, as not unfrequently happens, 

 " Oh ! / never fish with bait, / always use flies," 

 uttered in a tone consequential and somewhat 

 contumacious, we can discount the speakers' 

 qualities as a man, and put a low estimate upon 

 his skill as an angler ; a good and gentle one 

 never brags or holds himself above the humblest 

 of the craft. 



When fishing for trout with bait, a fly rod with 

 light water gear should always be used ; in fact, 

 the tackle should be in no manner different from 

 that handled in fly fishing, except the substitution 

 of a single hook for the feathers. Fishing with 



